Fast Forward: Judith Browne Dianis

“There are aggressive attacks on voting rights that we did not see in the 90s." Judith Browne Dianis is the executive director of The Advancement Project. Judith has an extensive background in civil rights litigation and advocacy in the areas of voting, education, housing, and employment. She has protected the rights of people of color in the midst of some of the greatest civil rights crises of our modern times, including in Florida after the 2000 election and in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Dianis joined Advancement Project at its inception in 1999, after serving as the Managing Attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. She is a graduate of Columbia University School of Law, was awarded a Skadden Fellowship, served as a Tobias Simon Eminent Scholar at Florida State University Law School, and as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. She was named one of the “Thirty Women to Watch” by Essence Magazine and has written and commented extensively in the media about race, voting rights, and education issues, appearing often on MSNBC, CNN, BET, TVOne and various radio shows. On this episode of the podcast, Dianis talks about where voting rights are today and why she believes the trend of making it harder to vote as something that will continue. Judith talks about her work on the ground in Florida during the 2000 election, what that tells us about today and how she started a voting protection program as a result. Judith also covers communities’ relationships to voter rights laws and shares opinions on potential structural changes to voting in the U.S.